Anger after Lebanese director taken before military tribunal then released without charge
A military tribunal released Lebanese film director Ziad Doueiri without charge yesterday morning after he was detained on Sunday at the airport in Beirut.
Doueiri is in Lebanon for the local premiere of his latest film on Thursday. His detention was related to visits to Israel, said the Samir Kassir Foundation, which supports freedom of expression.
The director filmed parts of his 2012 film, The Attack, in Israel, with which Lebanon is still technically at war. Lebanese law forbids its citizens from visiting Israel, and the film was banned in the country.
The Samir Kassir Foundation said Doueiri was released without charge, but The Daily Star newspaper reported he was required to post bail.
The Samir Kassir Centre also said Doueiri was given back his French and Lebanese passports.
Best known for his 1998 film West Beirut, Doueiri’s latest work, The Insult, has received a positive response in Lebanon.
This month the ministry of culture selected it to represent Lebanon in the Best Foreign Language Film category for next year’s Academy Awards.
Culture minister Ghattas Khoury tweeted in support of Doueiri yesterday, saying: “Ziad Doueiri is a Lebanese director who is great and respected in the world. Respecting and honouring is a duty.”
Last week, Palestinian actor and director Kamel El Basha, who plays a refugee in The Insult, won the award for best actor at the Venice Film Festival.
Doueiri’s supporters condemned his arrest, with some questioning the timing of it because he had filmed The Insult in Lebanon.
Adam Shatz, a New York writer, said on Twitter: “His arrest is outrageous, petty and a worrying sign for artistic freedom in Lebanon.”
Kassem Istanbouli, a director from the city of Sour and a campaigner for the revival of Lebanese cinema, said: “If they had a problem with him, why did they let him film the movie in Lebanon? And they want him to be in the Oscars.”
Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war resulted in the closure of most of its film theatres.
Doueiri’s West Beirut remains a seminal work that has inspired many filmmakers with its technique and its frank portrayal of the civil war. The culture ministry put it forward for the 1999 Oscar awards but it was not selected as a nominee.
Nadim Houry, the director for counter-terrorism at Human Rights Watch, said that Doueiri’s arrest was an example of how Lebanon’s laws were often applied arbitrarily.
“The application is erratic and political,” Mr Houry said. “It is particularly surprising and shocking as the facts of Mr Doueiri’s visit to Israel have been well known for years.”
The law makes interacting with Israeli citizens in a third country illegal, and he said it was time for the law, passed in 1955, to be amended.
“Citizens are not responsible for the acts of their states,” Mr Houry said. “It is also quasi-impossible to implement. In this day and age, any Lebanese who travels regularly is likely to bump into an Israeli and have an interaction with them.
“Just take a flight to Istanbul, Larnaca, Paris, London, Amman and you are likely to meet Israelis. Are we going to put all these Lebanese in jail?”
The Lebanese government banned screenings of the film Wonder Woman because the star, Gal Gadot, is an Israeli.